TREMPEALEAU, Wis. – A World War II soldier from Trempealeau, who survived the Bataan Death March 1942 in the Philippines, only to die in a Japanese prison camp un December , has been identified by DNA 82 years later. Sergeant Jack H. Hohlfeld, 29 at the time, will be buried in La Crosse at a later date. Just as fittingly, he will be memorialized on the Walls of the Missing at the Manila American Cemetery and Memorial in the Philippines. A rosette will be placed next to his name, marking him finally as accounted for.
Trempealeau soldier. Had been in the Army Air Corps headquarters in Manila when Japan invaded.
Bataan Death March
Hohlfeld was captured in April 1942 when Japan invaded the Philippines. Some 60,000 to 80,000 U.S. and Filipino soldiers were marched 65 miles to a remote war prisoner camp. Many died and were left along the way. Hohfeld survived until December. He was buried in a common grave with hundreds other prisoners. The bodies were exhumed after the war. New technology — mitochondrial DNA analysis — was applied beginning in 2018 to identify Bataan victims. Thus was three-quarters of a century after the the International Military Tribunal for the Far East declared what happened constituted war crimes.